HISTORY, ROMANCE AND...CATS!
Grace Elliot leads a double life as a vet by day and author of intelligent historical fiction by night. Grace is an avid reader and believes that smart people need to read romance - as an antidote to the modern world!
Grace is also obsessed by all things feline.

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Wednesday, 5 February 2014

Dog Collars - a Short History

This week’s blog post looks at dog collars
through history. Dog collars are used restraint, to
control and training purposed but from ancient times owners also used the opportunity to
make a statement about their wealth or power.

Medieval hunting dogs wore iron collars set
with spikes which supposedly gave a measure of protection against a charging
boar, and it did no harm that these aggressive looking collars reflected
well on their master. Illustrations found in missals, Books of Hours
and bestiaries suggest that dog collars were frequently made of precious
metals and it was probably just as well that in medieval times dogs were a
symbol of fidelity (you wouldn’t want your dog running off with a small
fortune in gold round his neck.)

This pug wearing a bell collar dates from 1800and reflects the European fashion for bells.

In the Far East a fashion for
bells on collars dated back to the Tang Dynasty (618 – 907). In the 1720’s
a Japanese Emperor owned a dog, Mao Shih Tzu, that wore a gold and silver
collar bearing bells and earrings also with bells attached. The collar alerted
the imperial servants to the Emperor’s movements as he moved around the palace.
As trade with the far east opened up with the west, these collars with bells also became fashionable in Europe.

A detail from a tapestry showing a beautiful embroidered collar.

Paintings serve as a rich source of
information and since the wealthy mainly had their portraits painted, in this
way we learn a lot about their dogs. Many paintings and tapestries show dogs in
jewelled collars that boasted of their masters’ wealth. King Louis XI of France, had a collar of
scarlet velvet sewn with pearls and rubies made for his favourite greyhound,
Cherami. Inventories of the personal effects of another famous monarch, King Henry
VIII, list many precious collars.

“Two
other collars with the king’s armes and at the end portcullis and rose.”

“A
collar embroidered with pomegranates and roses with turrets of silver and gilt”
[Catherine of Aragon’s symbol was a pomegranate]

“A
collar of garnished …with one shell of silver and guilt, with torrettes and
pendauntes of silver and guilt.”

The colour of a collar could be an
important mark of ownership, in much the same way that football strips are
today. King Charles VIII’s household owned 24 pets and each wore a black velvet
collar with four ermine paws dangling from them – the white part symbolised the
Brittany coat of arms. The French king Charles IX owned 36 miniature greyhounds
and they wore red and green velvet collars, whilst the dogs belonging to his
sister-in-law, Mary Queen of Scots, wore blue velvet collars.Marie Antoinette’s dogs wore diamond
encrusted collars but such extravagance vanished with the French Revolution and
the pugs owned by Empress Josephine wore relatively simple collars decorated
with Chinese bells.

Four generations of the Dutch house of Orange-showing their orange sashes.

Pug dogs introduced to Holland as a result
of Dutch trade in the Far East, during the 16th century wore orange
ribbons around their necks as a sign of the ascendancy of the House of Orange.
Whilst in the early 1720’s a Russian ambassador gave the Chinese envoy a pair
of greyhounds, each wearing a yellow silk cord drawn through a small piece of
wood, as a sign of it belonging to the Romanov court.

Another fashion gained popularity in the
late 17th century was for collars with inscriptions. In the English court the
earliest engraving were fairly dull such as this one on a gilt copper collar
line with red leather and blue velvet.

“This
dog belongs to his Royal Highness George Augustus, Prince of Wales, 1715.”

A collar given by Alexander Pope to
Frederick, Prince of Wales, for his Great Dane, was famously inscribed:

“I am
His Highness’ dog at Kew

Pray,
Tell me sir, whose dog are you.”

And a silver dog collar reportedly worn by
Bonnie Prince Charlie’s Italian Greyhound, was engraved with the Jacobite royal
arms.

An embroidered patch showing 'Jupiter' one of Mary Queen of Scotsfavourite dogs.

And finally, from the leopard at the court
of the Bavarian Duke, Albert, to Edward III’s kennel boys – it wasn’t just the dogs who wore dog collars…

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